OK, so this may be a bit off the ask in the thread, but can I ask a Berezin question that's been bugging me a bit here?
We all have this mental image of Berezin and how he played. Pond hockey individualist, not even aware he has teammates out there, living only to take 40 foot wrist shots from the same place every single shift. I remember that too, and it shows up in the statistical record in the form of hundreds of shots and very few assists.
Only his stats look very different for the first two years of his career. I'll get into that, but I want to emphasize that
i have no memory of any particular Berezin plays from those seasons, only that he was there and scored like a reasonable second liner. this could be attributable to the 13-14 year old maybe girls are more interesting than hockey shift in my life at the time, but nevertheless.
In the two seasons between 1996 and 1998, Berezin played 141 games, took 2.43 shots per game, and exactly 50% of his points involved some contribution from Mats Sundin. In the 3 seasons between 1998 and 2001, he played 216 games, took 3.52 shots per game, and 6% of his 148 points had anything to do with Sundin. He couldn't have possibly been playing the same way for this to happen...does anyone else find this odd?
Like, I get why a skill guy might want to carry the mail a bit more if they're out there with 3rd liners instead of a hall of fame, and I get that the latter Leafs team was deeper at forward, but again this guy in one season went from being a player I can't picture on the ice at all, to one of the franchise's all time memorable oddities. Anyone remember Berezin version 1.0?
@seventieslord ? Buehler?